BSNL, MTNL want govt. to bear entire burden of one-time fee for additional spectrum

BSNL, MTNL want govt. to bear entire burden of one-time fee for additional spectrumPublic sector telecommunication companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have requested the government to bear the entire burden of one-time fee for additional spectrum.

BSNL and MTNL are jointly facing a payout of around Rs 11,000 crore after an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) announced its decision to impose a fee on incumbent telecoms with excess spectrum.

The EGoM recently declared that all telecom operators that own more than 2.5 Mhz of CDMA spectrum and 4.4 Mhz of GSM spectrum would have to pay a one-time spectrum fee for excess spectrum they own.

Both companies said they were not in a position to pay any additional amount for retaining excess spectrum, but added that they must have to retain the excess spectrum to serve their customers.

R. K. Upadhyay, chairman & managing director of BSNL, wrote a letter to the department of telecommunications (DoT) saying, "Due to the present financial conditions, BSNL is not in a position to pay any additional amount for retention even though the spectrum is essential to serve its customers."

In a separate letter, MTNL Chairman & Managing Director A. K. Garg also requested the government to pay for the excess spectrum the public sector firm owns.

A senior DoT official said that the requests would be send to the union finance ministry to look at a probable bailout. However, private operators said that if the government gives such as package to the two public sector firms, then they would also request a financial support from the government.